Monday, December 13, 2010

Greetings, everybody. It’s Letty again (it’s about time, really), and I’m here to give you guys an update concerning what’s been happening the world of Rosenkreuzstilette and Schwer and Schwer Alike. It’s been a while, and I owe everyone an apology for that. I promise to be a little more attentive to this thing, mostly since I’m starting to have a reason to care again. There’s much to be done in the coming days, and it’s about time we get started on it!

I’m going to begin with the first thing that everyone’s dying to know about: the status of Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel. And that status is… I don’t know. The Comiket 79 catalog is out now, and [erka:es], in true IseWOMI fashion, is absent from the line-up, meaning that the game clearly will not be released at this winter’s Comic Market. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all we know. There hasn’t been any significant update to the [erka:es] website since the end of last August, and not a single update either on this month or November. Back in September, there was a response to an e-mail from one “Danielu Yoshikoto” that, as far as I can tell, translates to “RKS:F is still being worked on, and we hope we’ll be done with it soon.” That’s pretty much the last thing we’ve heard about Freudenstachel. Is it done? Is it close to being done? Did they start over? We don’t know, and until they say something else, we won’t. Patience is a virtue, as they say, so we’ll have to show some virtue for this one.

Speaking of, I’m finally in a position to start up that interview I’d been wanting to hold, so hopefully within the week, I’ll get in contact with [erka:es] so I can ask them personally about the Freudenstachel status and some of the intricacies of the original game. I found myself browsing the Wiki again recently, and I really don’t know where some of that information comes from. I’ve pretty much reserved myself to not worry about it until I get better information anyway, but until then, everything there, unless pretty obvious, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Now, on to greater things. Ravy Comics continues to be straight-up atrocious, but I’ve got to hand it to the guy for figuring out some of what he has in the world of “hacking” RKS (though I can’t say I approve of all of it) and for supporting [erka:es] in his own way. That said, one of his little guides includes a way of putting the English script into RKS version 1.06a, since the current patch isn’t compatible with it. If you want to do that workaround by simply copying the scenario.dat file over, you’re more than welcome to, but there’s a reason we haven’t updated the English patch for compatibility, and no, it’s not because TDOMMX has a new job (or because he can't update his own site due to an evil Digimon that took over his computer). It’s actually because we’re doing it over. There was a lot of bad blood between TDO and myself by the end of the project, mostly due to his problems with the Grolla script, and as a result, things didn’t turn out the way we hoped. Because of this, we’ve decided to revamp the entire translation for both Spiritia and Grolla for one final, completed work. I can’t imagine that Spiritia’s script will be too much different, but we’ll see. Here’s the details of the revamp:

The scripts will be rewritten using the current script, the translations we already have from Tanin and Akira, and finally, a new translation done by Ryusui of Watercrown Productions (you may know him from his re-translation of Capcom's Breath of Fire II). Exciting, I know! I will personally handle all of the rewriting with full roundtable discussions over the new script revision (if you’re interested in participating in this, feel free to send us a line about it). Once that’s done, we’ll work on changing the necessary .dat files, as well as hacking the .exe, to bring the script to the new version. But that’s not all! We hope to get some of the original image files for the game, so we can do some more-complete image editing. It’ll make everything feel a little more perfect to us, and in turn, it’ll be better for you all. What’s the ETA on this, you ask? We’ll let you know when we find out.

The art contest is still being worked on. I feel really bad about not having been able to do anything about it before, as a number of circumstances in and outside of my life screwed that up, but it is still on the horizon. The contest will begin anew after we complete the first physical English release of the game. That way, we’ll actually have a prize to send out. Of course, Kiora’s Rosenkreuzstilette AfterStory doujinshi is still out there to be won, and there WILL be a new item up for grabs in the contest. What is that item, you ask? Let’s just say that some people like playing dress-up. That’s all the clue you get!

Grolla novelization is still happening, but first, I’m working on a re-Let’s Play of Rosenkreuzstilette. “Letty!” you may be saying. “That game has been LP’d, like, a million times! Why can’t you be original?” Well, truth be told, I made the very first Let's Play for the game, and I’m absolutely ashamed of it. I want to redeem myself and create something worthy of the game while adding in some tidbits of information and little bonuses that you may or may not find anywhere else. It’s fun, right? Right. So I’m working on that first.

That’s really all I can think to say for now. Please support [erka:es] by purchasing their game if you haven’t already. Heck, e-mail us a picture or copy of your receipt from DLSite (important info taken out, of course), and I might even give you something, even if it’s a little mention here or in a video. Any and all Freudenstachel updates can be found here, as usual, and we’ll keep you up to speed the best we can. Thanks for reading! If I forgot anything, I’ll append it later.

Welcome!

Where in the world are you? I'm glad you asked! Welcome to Schwer and Schwer Alike, the official English development blog for Rosenkreuzstilette -Blades of the Rose Cross-. "RKS" is a series of indie sidescrollers created by [erka:es] as a loving tribute to old-school gaming. The series caters to the loyal-yet-neglected Megaman fanbase and fills the void created by the cancellation of Megaman Universe and Megaman Legends 3.

Originally a dynamic duo, [erka:es] is now a one-man show run by WOMI, the series' lead artist and character designer. Should you feel so inclined, you can download free trial versions of Rosenkreuzstilette and its sequel, Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel, from the developer's official website. If you like what you see, you can purchase both games, in English, via Steam and Playism .